Springtime 1985. The Night Stalker murders his way across Los Angeles, but the municipality of Willow Heights isn't too concerned. The 24/7 news coverage of rape and murder is boring compared with the news of fifteen year old Ricardo caught in flagrante delicto with a boy named Steve in the high school parking lot. One by one, relatives, friends, repudiate Ricardo. He'd never been one to feel alone or afraid or be the kind of person who backs down, but when his parents kick him out, Ricardo's not-so-peaceful life is shot to hell. Family is family--Ricardo is too stupid to believe anything otherwise. He means to go back home again, even if he has to bash on a tadpole loser classmate and his God-crazy aunt or be chummy with ruthless gangs. He might even be willing to shed some of his ugly prejudices. Even then, all his determination might not be nearly enough, not when the Night Stalker has dark plans in Willow Heights .... Solace is the first episode of a coming of age suspense serial, featuring amidst the 1980's AIDS scare, a macho gay boy, a tadpole straight boy, and their harrowing encounter with a serial killer.

This is the first detailed account of the life and ideas of 'Abdullah Yusuf 'Ali, whose The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary is the most widely used English translation of the Qur'an. This is a candid and sympathetic study that draw on Yusuf 'Ali's writings and private papers, as well as unpublished sources.

In shock after her husband was killed by a drunk driver while living in Thailand, Janelle Shantz Hertzler began searching for a way through the pain. Her struggle to make sense of her loss and find peace resulted in this moving collection. Told through heartfelt poetry and inspiring photography, Seasons of Solace expresses the spiritual journey of a grieving woman moving toward acceptance.Though written from one person's perspective, Hertzler's poems and photographs reflect the universal experience of losing a loved one. Within the narrative lie broader truths of life and death, love and sorrow, allowing each reader to find his or her own story in its pages.

There is no more stressful and traumatic experience than coping with the death of a loved one. There are various stages of grief and loss, which often take months or even years for many people to overcome. But with the right guidance, readers can learn to lessen the pain and live happy lives. Solaceprovides soothing comfort and hope for those who are suffering. As an award-winning bereavement expert, Roberta Temes believe all of us experience and process grief in our own way. Here she helps readers through the stages of grief, tells them when they should worry, helps them consider the pros and cons of bereavement groups and counselors, and shows them how to use visualization to help the healing process. Featuring anecdotes drawn from her bereavement practice so readers may learn from the experiences of others who have also gone through and struggled with loss,Solaceis also filled with comforting affirmations, quotations and words of encouragement. Dealing with loss is never easy, but this book provides a calming companion to help readers through their mourning and begin enjoying life again.

A young girl named Naomi endures years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of her mother Nola. After being removed from her mother's home, she endures the foster system but still puts herself through college. Due to her deep emotional wounds, her marriage is suffering and her life begins to unravel when she meets a young boy named Xavier and his abusive mother Mona.

In the tradition of Kathleen Norris, Terry Tempest Williams, and Thomas Merton, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes explores the impulse that has drawn seekers into the wilderness for centuries and offers eloquent testimony to the healing power of mountain silence and desert indifference. Interweaving a memoir of his mother's long struggle with Alzheimer's and cancer, meditations on his own wilderness experience, and illuminating commentary on the Christian via negativa--a mystical tradition that seeks God in the silence beyond language--Lane rejects the easy affirmations of pop spirituality for the harsher but more profound truths that wilderness can teach us. "There is an unaccountable solace that fierce landscapes offer to the soul. They heal, as well as mirror, the brokeness we find within." It is this apparent paradox that lies at the heart of this remarkable book: that inhuman landscapes should be the source of spiritual comfort. Lane shows that the very indifference of the wilderness can release us from the demands of the endlessly anxious ego, teach us to ignore the inessential in our own lives, and enable us to transcend the "false self" that is ever-obsessed with managing impressions. Drawing upon the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhardt, Simone Weil, Edward Abbey, and many other Christian and non-Christian writers, Lane also demonstrates how those of us cut off from the wilderness might "make some desert" in our lives. Written with vivid intelligence, narrative ease, and a gracefulness that is itself a comfort, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes gives us not only a description but a "performance" of an ancient and increasingly relevant spiritual tradition.